12:14pm

Eastern and Central Kentucky

Toyota Moving Back into Full Production

Early next month, workers at Georgetown’s Toyota plant will be back on a full-time schedule. The flow of supplies from Japan are moving now after a spring earthquake and tsunami slowed distribution. The March earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused a break in the automotive company’s system for distributing parts. The resulting shortage resulted in fewer hours on the job for employees at the Scott County Toyota Assembly Plant.

But, company spokesman Rick Hesterberg says the lines should be running at full throttle within a month. Hesterberg adds they don’t anticipate any future cutbacks in production.

“We don’t anticipate having to scale back. You know, I think what we have is a clear picture now that the parts that we need to be at 100 percent will be there,” said Hesterberg.

The disruption in supplies caused alterations in scheduling at the Toyota plant. Hesterberg says workers are ready to ‘turn the corner’ and get back to normal.

“We mean 100% production by working two eight hour shifts, five days a week, but no overtime at this point. So eight of our 12 models that we build in North American will be at 100 percent production. That includes those products will build at Georgetown; the Camry, Camry hybrid, Avalon, and Venza,” added Hesterberg.

In the disaster, Hesterberg says there were cases where some of Toyota’s Japanese suppliers ceased to exist. Hesterberg also congratulated suppliers in this country and Japan for restoring the flow of parts into North America.